It's marginally embarassing to admit this, but I'm a late adopter of downloading fansubs. I only started getting into it this month. There were a few good reasons for my tardiness: inferior hardware, insufficient free time, etc etc blah blah blah. But this month I've downloaded hundreds of gigs of fansubbed anime. Hell, I've even watched a few megs' worth.

Then it struck me, just yesterday.

In 1986, it was an epic quest to get this stuff. I had to find out about these shows from rare, hard-to-find magazines; I had to seek out a well-hidden, tiny store so I could rent the shows; I had to make do with low-quality, Nth-generation videocassette recordings in raw Japanese; no dubs, no subs, no nothing. It was a struggle, but I managed to watch, at least partially understand, enjoy, and duplicate hundreds -- even thousands -- of VHS tapes of raw anime.

Around 2000 or so, I admitted that my collection was obsolete both technologically and in terms of the hobby. I threw all my VHSs away and started the daunting (and expensive) process of building a DVD library. How could I not? They boast high quality video, they're subbed as well as dubbed (not that I watch dubs), and they're smaller than VHSs to boot. Nice. But they're not cheap, and there are still so many shows I once had and loved which aren't available on DVD.

Suddenly, the internet.

Just yesterday I found and downloaded Macross DYRL. God I love that movie, and I haven't had a decent copy of it in over a decade. I'm so happy. I also found Dancougar: Requiem for Victims, and Demon of Steel, and freakin' Delpower X! And the thing is, I got all of these precious animes in high visual quality... with subtitles... and they take up no physical space at all... and I didn't to leave my house or even the couch to get them... and they're FREE. It's such a paradise that it's almost too much for me to bear.

I know it's illegal, but that's never stopped me before. I've been a video pirate since I was 13. I suspect this can't last, so I'm suckin' down everything I want immediately. For all I know, Comast and the FCC could lock the internet behind golden bars tomorrow.

But right now, I'm a teenager again, and every holy grail I ever imagined is at my fingertips. It's impossible and beautiful and bewildering.

Yeah, it's a real experience. I started a few months ago. My wife's Internet phone device makes it impossible for me to download anime at home but I have permission to run my office computer after 5pm and I've been grabbing a number of shows.

I watched Zambot 3. I felt like a kid again. The experience of watching it was awesome. I'm eagerly awaiting the completion of fan subs for Captain Harlock (1978) and Yuusha Raideen.

I understand how you feel - I still have my VHS dub tapes from back in the day. However, the plethora of fansubbed shows are fantastic - and those groups who reach back in the stacks to sub shows that would never reach the light of day otherwise are to be commended.

I spent about thirty minutes pondering the legality of it all. Then I reached the conclusion that this is what I worked for all these years - to get anime out to fans. Yes, we paved the way for anime distributors, but frankly all the work of popularizing anime was not for them. It was for US -- the people who love this stuff, and who had to suffer under tyrannical "club lords" to get it.

When I get paid I'm scoring another hard-drive to accommodate the goodies I've scored, and to make more room for all the other stuff I'm making. I say, keep on downloading, and may you enjoy all the goodies now and yet to come!

PS: Where did you get your copy of Hagane no Oni? I have a copy, but the subtitles don't work properly. I'd love to score a properly subtitled version!

Oh, that reminds me - what did you think of Cosmo Police Justy? That's one of my favorite examples of historical BitTorrent archiving. I really enjoyed that video back in the day, and I KNEW it was never going to be released here.

Lo and behold, one day I spy it on BT. I had to write to the fansubbers and thank them for bringing one of the best psychic hero animes to the light of day. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it - it's how a Lensman anime should be done.

Re Hagane no Oni - OK, that's the one I've got, too. I haven't figured out how to associate the .srt file to the video, either. I guess it's a matter of spending some time researching it. I sure ain't going onto their forum and getting razzed about being a n00b.